1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a limited-life thermal retention container which is particularly useful for storing or transporting hot or cold food. In a preferred embodiment, the thermal retention container of this invention is adapted to store and/or transport a plurality of pizzas.
2. Background
There is an ever-growing consumption of prepared hot and frozen food products. In both cases it is desirable to insulate the food product during storage or transport to retain its thermal properties. Insulating carriers used heretofore have generally been of one of two possible types--expensive, multi-use containers having a metal double-wall construction filled with fiberglass or other known insulators, and inexpensive single-use disposable consumer containers ranging from simple single-wall pizza boxes to insulated icecream bags to paper-foil laminated bags. The more expensive variety of carriers provide higher thermal retention efficiencies as compared to the aforementioned bags and boxes, but obviously are not economically purchased by or distributed to limited-use consumers. What is needed is an intermediate product--one that approximates the low cost characteristics of the disposable consumer products, but offers a prolonged life and the higher thermal retention properties of the more expensive, multi-use containers.
Accordingly, it is the primary object of my invention to provide a thermal retention container which will have insulating properties approximating those of multi-use permanent containers but having a low cost construction permitting its use as a disposable consumer product.
Another object of my invention is to provide a low cost thermal retention container which is durable enough to permit repeated use.